January 19, 2018. Mystery Writers of America announced Hallie Ephron’s You’ll Never Know, Dear nominated as a finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award. This is Ephron’s fifth time as a finalist for this prestigious award.

BEST of 2017! Audiofile names YOU’LL NEVER KNOW DEAR a year’s best!

December 3, 2017. YOU’LL NEVER NOW, DEAR named an Audiofile BEST AUDIO BOOK OF 2017. And congratulations to our wonderful narrator, Amy McFadden!

Fresh Fiction gives a rave review to YOU’LL NEVER KNOW DEAR

Dec, 2017: Fresh Fiction gives YOU’LL NEVER KNOW, DEAR a RAVE REVIEW: “What a great suspense to read, YOU”LL NEVER KNOW, DEAR written by Hallie Ephron is one that you will not want to miss! This novel has one mystery after another that keeps you guessing and just when you thought you figured it out, it turns out not to be what you think.“

Hallie & Steven James THE STORYBLENDER talk about writing

November 12, 2018. Hallie guests on Steven James’s THE STORYBLENDER, talking about writing.

NY Times: YOU’LL NEVER KNOW, DEAR “surprisingly gentle” family drama

September 3, 2017. New York Times book review finds YOU’LL NEVER KNOW, DEAR a “surprisingly gentle” portrait of women “who rely on their doggedness and emotional bonds on a mission to restore family peace.” “Ephron aims for readers who favor… novels in which the writing is straightforward and the plot spools out at a measured pace.”

San Francisco Review of Books, August 27, 2017: You’ll Never Know, Dear is an engrossing and fast-paced novel that will hold readers’ attention while they try to figure out who is behind all of the mayhem.”

Spectacular review in SHELF AWARENESS

Shelf Awareness July 12, 2017. “You’ll Never Know, Dear is a grabber, a mystery ballasted by women on a mission and the ties that bind them. Ephron is sharp; she swerves around potential plot snags and tosses red herrings like a master.”

Boston Globe rave review!

After 40 years, Janey Woodham’s porcelain doll, the one that went missing when the 4-year-old disappeared one sunny afternoon from her front yard, turns up in the hands of a stranger. And with that one enticing clue, best-selling author Hallie Ephron’s new mystery, “You’ll Never Know, Dear,” is off and running.
…
An accessible, easy read that deftly integrates the mystery genre with women’s fiction, it’s made compelling by the depth and resonance of the relationships.”Read more….

Second printing! Audiofile Earphones Award winner!

June 7, 2017 – YOU’LL NEVER KNOW, DEAR is already going into its second printing… 1 day after book launch!

Setting the book in the South… Hallie on Book Club Girl

June 6 on Book Club Girl Hallie talks about setting YOU’LL NEVER KNOW, DEAR in beautiful Beaufort, SC, then having to fictionalize it because its history is almost too fantastic and bizarre to be believed.

I grew up in Hollywood, lived in New York City, and now I consider myself a New Englander. To me, the South is like a foreign country. So it was a challenge when I started writing You’ll Never Know, Dear and realized the elderly doll maker and the story I was spinning belonged in the South.

Hallie hails from the famous Ephron family, who are compared sometimes to the Bronte sisters… She told Patch why that doesn’t exactly workRead more

Advance reviews! Booklist, PW, Kirkus, Romantic Times

Booklist says YOU’LL NEVER KNOW, DEAR, “…with its strong characters and vivid sense of place, the novel should draw from both camps… women’s fiction and mainstream mystery.”

Publisher’s Weekly: “Engaging portrait of three generations of bickering, bull-headed, but loving women challenged to become their bravest and best selves.”

Kirkus: “Diverting. …Would have been a great vehicle for Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, including all the slightly creepy dolls.”

RT Romantic Times Book Review: “A uniquely intriguing mystery” “The suspenseful portions are fast paced, and the reader will race to find out how things will play out. The parts dealing with doll making and restoration are fascinating.”

John Valeri in The Criminal Element: “Ephron excels at depicting the dynamics between ordinary women thrust into extraordinary situations. While she’s often told tales of mothers and daughters, this is her first three-generation saga, and the result is a poignant portrayal of how tragedies often have a trickle-down effect, blighting everyone they touch despite the degrees of separation. “You’ll Never Know, Dear” is a worthy and irresistibly readable addition to the author’s impressive arsenal. While discerning readers may harbor strong suspicions as to who the guilty party is, it’s the why that drives the narrative—a consideration that proves compelling until the bitter/sweet end. Though Ephron’s work is often classified as women’s fiction, it should appeal to anybody who enjoys intelligent, stylistic suspense. After all, questions of family, fidelity, and forgiveness are universal.

Worcester Telegram: The Greater Worcester Chapter of Hadassah is featuring the New York Times best-selling author Hallie Ephron as its speaker at its annual donor luncheon April 30 at The Manor, 42 West Boylston St., West Boylston.

Hitting the best seller lists!

March, 2017: Hallie’s There Was an Old Woman broke into Amazon’s Movers & Shakers, Top 100 at #14 & made its debut on the USA TODAY Bestselling Books list!

Bargain priced Hallie’s e-books

3/9/2017 $.99 Bargain priced for a limited time, each with a preview of YOU’LL NEVER KNOW, DEAR:

THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN, a Mary Higgins Clark Award finalist… featuring a memorable 92-year-old woman, a house with a view in the Bronx, and the Empire State Building. In The Washington Post Maureen Corrigan called it “the perfect thriller lite.” Sarah Weinman named it one of the year’s Top 10 Crime Fiction.Low price 3/6-3/20/2017 CLICK HERE, then click on the retailer of your choice.

NEVER TELL A LIE, another Mary Higgins Clark Award finalist… a young couple are about to have their first child. A woman from their past shows up at their yard sale, goes inside their home, and never comes out. A starred review in Publisher’s Weekly called it a “deliciously creepy tale of obsession.” USA Today: “You can imagine Hitchcock curling up with this one.”Low price 4/10-4/24/2017 CLICK HERE, then click on the retailer of your choice.

Revuzeit calls NIGHT NIGHT “Perfect for Oscar night reading”

Just out is the paperback Night Night, Sleep Tight by one of my favorite writers, Hallie Ephron. Yes, she is one of those sisters whose formative years in Hollywood and genetic framework brought them all eventually into the wide world of entertainment. Hallie is the award-winning and bestselling mystery writer and book reviewer for the Boston Globe who shapes the skills of coming writers in workshops allover the country……but I digress…….this new one is a killer!

Back in our youth we all heard the gossip of the beautiful blonde movie star with the abusive gangster boyfriend who was in the headlines when her 12 year old daughter killed the lover. Right. A similar thirty year old murder serves as the glittery backdrop to a young woman’s 1986 probe into the death of her father. I loved all the then and now quirks and secrets as they are elegantly woven into a thrilling page-turner chock-a-block with glamour, gossip and sandal. Perfect for Oscar night reading.

Night Night, Sleep Tight released in paperback

02/16/2016 NIGHT NIGHT, SLEEP TIGHT is now in paperback! Nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award, a riveting tale of domestic noir, infused with old Hollywood folklore and glamour, set in a town rife with egotism and backstabbing and where fame and infamy are often interchangeable.

Hartford Books Examiner rave review for NIGHT NIGHT, SLEEP TIGHT

“Hallie Ephron is at her absolute, unequivocal best with Night Night, Sleep Tight. Autobiographical elements—the author is, after all, the daughter of celebrated screenplay writers Henry and Phoebe Ephron—elevate the story from standard whodunit fare, resulting in a deeply atmospheric and authentic sense of time and place. With the glitz and glamour of old Hollywood lost to cynicism and suspicion, Ephron serves up a multitude of credible suspects and motives to keep readers guessing until the very end and offers a final denouement worthy of its own big screen moment. If this book was a film, we’d call it a blockbuster.“

“Just like her big sis Nora, this talented Ephron is fully capable of captivating an audience for extended periods of time (304 pages, to be exact). But instead of the usual cheery rom-com that’s become synonymous with her last name, this enthralling story is decidedly darker in tone. Set in 1980s Los Angeles, it follows Deirdre Unger, who, after moving to the West Coast to assist her ailing father, discovers his body face down in the family pool. After initially chalking it up to a tragic accident, she soon discovers that it could in fact be a murder, and is hell-bent on figuring out who’s guilty of the crime.”

Profile of Hallie on CT News…

Hallie Ephron grew up in Hollywood, but she put that life behind her to establish deep roots in New England, where she has become one of our top suspense novelists.

“Never Tell a Lie,” “Come and Find Me” and “There Was an Old Woman” have carved out Ephron’s own territory as a specialist in down-to-earth Hitchcockian suspense involving ordinary people any of us might know — that’s what makes the stories so gripping and so scary.

Now, for the first time, Ephron has used her background as the daughter of the movie screenwriters Henry and Phoebe Ephron and the sister of writers Nora, Delia and Amy Ephron for a novel that shows the dark side of Old Hollywood.

Iron Mountain Daily News praises NIGHT NIGHT, SLEEP TIGHT

3/26/2015 The Iron Mountain Daily News: “With a sense of the glamour and scandal of old tinsel town, Hallie Ephron takes one of the most notorious chapters in Hollywood history and crafts a mystery that will keep the reader’s interest from its beginning to its most unconventional ending.”

Bookreporter’s Joe Hartlaub weighs in on Night Night

3/26/2015 “NIGHT NIGHT, SLEEP TIGHT is an extremely impressive work. The plotting and character development read as if they could have been transplanted from an unpublished Raymond Chandler novel.” — Joe Hartlaub, Bookreporter

Profile of Hallie Ephron on 90.9WBUR The Artery

3/24/2015 90.9WBUR The Artery, Boston’s NPR news station

“Hollywood childhood inspires Hallie Ephron’s latest suspense novel.” Hallie Ephron began writing what’s become her latest suspense novel, “Night Night, Sleep Tight,” about two decades ago. But at that point, it wasn’t a novel—it was a memoir about her growing up in the ‘60s with her family in Beverly Hills: 20th Century Fox screenwriter parents Henry and Phoebe Ephron (“Carousel,” “Daddy Long Legs,” “The Desk Set”) and writers-to-be sisters Nora, Delia and Amy.

Night Night, Sleep Tight one of the “killer thrillers” in Good Housekeeping

Writer’s Digest Conference East Early Bird Registration

Registration is open! 2015 Writer’s Digest Conference East, Roosevelt Hotel, July 31-August 2, New York, NY. Hallie teaches 3 workshops (Writing Mystery: A Crash Course; Setting: More than Creating a Sense of Place; and Revising a Novel: Step Away from the Blue Pencil. Great authors, agents, and those clever guys from Writers Digest who want you to have your breakthrough.

Suspense Magazine: NIGHT NIGHT is a “perfect package”

“The Hollywood lifestyle—from the glitz and glam to the grit and deceit—are all wrapped up in a perfect package by this award-winning author. And taking a drive through Old Hollywood, fearing and admiring that coveted 90210 area code will be something readers will not forget.” – Suspense Magazine

Six established crime authors held forth on the tricks of their trade at the Sheraton Philadelphia Society Hill, covering such topics as dramatic structure, character development, and the art of description. And along the way they sprinkled in a few don’ts: As in – cliché alert! – no cliff-hangers that involve a cellphone battery running out of juice.

Hallie Ephron, author of 2013’s There Was an Old Woman, took attendees through a hypothetical scene: Guy drives home from dinner with his wife, picks up the mail, notices the door to their apartment is open. Inside, the furniture is gone, but he finds a single red shoe with a stiletto heel.

Where in the course of events should the writer start the scene? How should the action be slowed down at crucial moments? And how to end the scene? Cliff-hangers are good, Ephron said, but she urged writers to use them sparingly.

“There Was an Old Woman” named Mary Higgins Clark Award finalist

Mystery Writers of America announces Hallie Ephron’s “There Was an Old Woman” named one of five finalists for the 2014 Mary Higgins Clark Award. — 1/15/2014

There Was an Old Woman one of Sarah Weinman’s TOP 10 for 2013

Sarah Weinman announces her 10 favorite crime novels for 2013 and There Was an Old Woman makes the list!

“There Was an Old Woman, Hallie Ephron. A terrific example of contemporary domestic suspense that features a fantastic nonagenarian heroine (and a cool thirtysomething co-protagonist, too) determined to keep her Bronx apartment from the grabby hands of developers and the sinister actions of unknown forces.” — 12/21/2013

Washington Post: A glowing review of There Was an Old Woman

WASHINGTON POST reviewer Maureen Corrigan:

“Location, location, location: The most basic element of any New York story is its address. Hallie Ephron’s “There Was An Old Woman” is a New York suspense story set in an extraordinary outer-borough neighborhood that will stay with readers… .

Hallie Ephron talks to WBZ’s Jordan Rich about THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN

Listen to the podcast, Jordan Rich of WBZ radio interviewing Hallie Ephron about her new book, “There Was an Old Woman.”

RAVE review in Times Record News, Wichita Falls, TX

“Author Hallie Ephron spins an intriguing tale of suspense in her latest book, ‘There Was An Old Woman,’ which is both thrilling and chilling;“ “a brilliant offering fans of suspense and intrigue will thoroughly enjoy.”

May 1: Interview with Hallie Ephron on CT Style

Joe Meyers for Hearst CT Media Group: “I couldn’t rest until the story was played out.”

“William Morrow calls the new Hallie Ephron book “There Was an Old Woman” a “novel of suspense” and that it is — the author sets up characters so real and situations so harrowing that I kept reading it, way too late into the night, because I knew I couldn’t rest until the story was played out.”

“Ephron is fast becoming one of contemporary fiction’s masters of suspense.”

BOSTON GLOBE best seller!

“Ephron’s novels are gripping because her characters are just real and nuanced enough to identify with. Ultimately, it’s compassion that makes us stay up late reading and, nose in book, miss our subway stop the next morning.”

“There Was an Old Woman represents Hallie Ephron at her very best. … Readers will be taken with the good, old-fashioned storytelling, brilliantly nuanced character portraits, and thought-provoking subtext. More than just a page-turner, this story is a haunting reminder that true terror starts at home…

“DESPITE the bedtime story image suggested by the title, American writer Hallie Ephron’s new novel is no children’s nursery rhyme. There Was an Old Woman is a tightly wrought, expertly written and frighteningly real suspense thriller that will keep you turning pages.”

“There is a depth to her characters that is reminiscent of Ruth Rendell‘s probing, often painful characterizations.”

“With well-developed characters and the threat of a very real menace, there are enough twists and turns in this story to make veteran suspense readers question their own mystery-solving abilities. The ending will make them question their own security.”

Lansing Journal mystery reviewer Ray Walsh raves!

Hallie on “Growing Up Ephron” in March “O” Magazine

In the March ’13 issue of The Oprah Magazine Hallie talks about “Growing Up Ephron” — with three talented, articulate sisters (Nora, Delia, and Amy), all coming of age in the shadow of a complicated, talented, unhappy mother.

Sometimes when people ask me about
Nora, I feel like saying, "You know,
there are three other Ephron sisters."
But to understand any of us, including
Nora, you'd have to start with our
mother -- a woman well ahead of her time.
Of all the Ephron women, she was surely
the most exceptional, for better and
for worse.

NEVER TELL A LIE adapted for film

“Never Tell a Lie’ has been adapted for film on the Lifetime Movie Network. “And Baby Will Fall” starring Anastasia Griffith, Brendan Fehr, and Clea Duval.

Not Quite 20 Questions for Hallie EphronHank Phillippi Ryan’s NOT QUITE 20 QUESTIONS FOR HALLIE EPHRON on the Sisters in Crime New England chapter blog! Book I wish I’d written? Movie I can watch over and over? Worst advice I’d ever gotten? And my motto: Just hold your nose and write.

They look just fine in the store. But put them on and do the downward facing dog, and anyone standing behind you can see all the way to Florida (to quote Carrie Fisher on a similarly problematic, though not transparent metal bikini).